_ - ••• ------- ' ---- L^1»-^SUM0C0. Monday, May Gth. 1935 Good Evening, Everybody:- Something’s been crackling in the air all day. News in big capital letters. News from London, news from Washington, news from Athens, from Paris, from Japan. News joyous, news tragic• The British Empire cheered as King George celebrated his Silver Jubilee. One of the most brilliant figures in the United States Senate died in an airplane crash. Cotton Carnival and down cotton difficulties. The United States Supreme Court handed^attt^a knock-out blow to one of 4ir President Roosevelt’s pet measures. Where shall we begin? Let*s have the bad news first CUTTING For America the most shocking occurrence of the day was the tragedy at Macon, Missouri. A big transport plane lost in a pea soupj xog, an emergency landing, a crash! Four people dead, nine injured. : ^nd in the pockets 01 the dead bodies an undertaker finds a card reading "Bronson M. Cutting." That’s a loss not only to New Mexico but to the United States 'if Senate and to the country at large. Bronson Cutting was a living paradox in many ways. A rich man, • born in the deep purple, he was always for the underdog. A highly educated gentleman of the kind usually described as a silk-stocking voter, he acquired the knack of practical politics. He was,one of the foremost scholars of his year at Harvard, a Phi Betta Kappa. He frequently used his wide reading and und of information to the confusion of his adversaries on the floor of the Senate. But he -alvcnyo Aid it in such a quiet* way------1..... in xi i iiinf i I............. .. nil ii wi Uni 1 ii !■ nfP In him niml lit i eolloDguoc-rcfipootcd i«ctoad~of -i»ooontodr He went to New Mexico for his health and in an incredibly short time had made himself Republican boss of the state. He j spoke several languages including Spanish. That made it easy for 'U wh,.. ■ • ac.waiMrtr- ~rr- msssmmats z : ■ CUTTING - 2 him to talk to the Spanish-speaking voters in New Mexico, as few of his rivals could. Whenever any of the poorer Mexicans got into trouble, they would run to Bronson Cutting. Though Bronson Cutting was a Republican, his death is both a personal and a political blow to President Roosevelt. He was a supporter of the New Deal. Three other people died in that airplane crash, the two pilots and a woman passenger, so far unidentifled. Nine other passengers were injured and are now in the hospital. The only living being uninjured was a tiny baby, found in the wreckage unhurt. It belonged to a woman passenger who shielded it. JAPAN And tragedy boomed underground in Japan, that empire of calamities, A mine explosion this time, barely two weelcs after the earthquake that spread ruin, death and desolation throughout the island of Formosa, Ninety-nine hapless laborers, with pick, shovel and drill, are entombed underground in the island of Hokkaido, This is the northernmos+ of the four principal islands that make up the original domain of the Mikados, It occured jtat in a mine owned by the Mohiri Company, Only three miners have been rescued alive. Two have been found dead, but they say there’s no hope for the rest of those trapped by the blowing up of the deadly fire-damp. What makes it more pitiful is the word that among the mine workers entrapped are women and children RAILROADS An emphatic "No" v;as heard throughout the land today. And the voice was that of the Supreme Court of the United States, By a vote of five to four, the justices declared that the Railroad\ | Retirement Act was unconstitutional. This decision, by the margin of one vote, is the first i important defeat that the New Deal has sustained In that much feared 1 1 i .... , nmr-.- ................ rr-MTm:- - rn’.i'll-................ tribunal. It also shatters the hopes of hundreds of thousands of railroad workers. The Railroad Retirement Act was the measure which compelled the companies to pay pensions at to all employees over the ^r age of sixty-five. "The Congress exceeded its powers Bfxilus under the ] Constitution in passing such an act." Thus sayeth the Supreme Court of the United States, It's decision comes at a particularly crucial time. Both Congress and the railroad executives liave been anxiously awaiting a message from President Roosevelt. That message is due some time this week. Nobody outside the White House knows what Mr. Roosevelt Intended to say. Obviously today’s decision can’t help affecting both his message and the action of Congress in response. In the first three months of this year, the bigger railroads lost some forty-four millioh dollars after paying off RAILROADS - 2 r taxes and Interest charges. The big moguls have been loudly demanding the exit of Mr. Joe Eastman, Federal Coordinator of Transportation. Mot that they have anything against Eastman personally - they don't like his job. The Supreme Court's opinion, coming on top of these circumstances, seems likely to muddle the situation still further. Even we laymen can see what a tough problem it is. The time has come for a big showdown with the railroads.' They say, almost in so many words: XX bkxkx »»H ow can we help losing forty-f«fcU? / million dollars in three months when Uncle Sam is subsidizing our ; competitors?" That's the construction they put on federal subsidies i to air transport lines, the building of highways and waterways. Well, the railroad companies won one point when they claimed that the old-age pension bill would make it impossible for them to carry on. -- GREECE In a hotel at Paris there’s a handsome, dignified, white bearded old gentleman, who was once among the foremost statesmen of Europe. When he was in Paris sixteen years ago he was one of the most respected, listened-to characters at the Peace Conference, Today Ex-Premier Eleutherios Venlzelos - he I ts the man I’m talking about - is not only a fugitive from his native land but he is proscribed, sentenced to death. What is more, his estates have been confiscated. That’s the sentence of the court martial in Athens on the once Grand Old Man of Hellenic politics. The same sentence was passed on his associate. General Nicholas Plastiras. The Ex-Premier’s son, Kiriakos Venlzelos, was awarded ten years in prison. The revolutionary leaders were tried in their absence. The Grecian government thus follows a rule established in certain Latin-American states. The rule that if you start a revolution, you’d better be sure to win. If you don’t, you pay the cost of suppressing it. And the expense of putting down the Venlzelos rebellion was estimated by the Athens government at the modest little sum of half a billion Drachmae, about four hundred and eighty million dollars, sionaj- L'- ':- | JUBILEE This afternoon I experienced the greatest thrill ITve yet had, listening to the radio. Those of you who had time to listen-in to that broadcast from overseas must have had it too. Perhaps you*11 agree thatit was by one-thousand percent the most * 2 — impressive thing that's yet come over the air. It was electrifying to hear a voice say:- "London calling the Union of South Africal" Then a short blare of trumpets to allow for be switch-over, and another voice:- "The Union of South Africa calling London." And then that dignified, eloquent utterance of Jan Smuts, Prime Minister of South Africa. ft Then another blare of trumpets and we heard:- "London calling the Dominion of Canada," followed by a tribute to His Majesty from Sir John Perley, Acting Premier of Canada. And,in turn,all the other parts of that great empire, Maritius, Australia, Somaliland, Mxxitsccxxx Rhodesia, Zanzibar, Malaya — the Indian BaRhxinxiarai Empire, — each in turn greeting the King. After that the Scottish voice of Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald. Then to ton it all came the address by the King himself, his thanks to all his dominions. 1-:."’.'? JUBILEE -2 To my mind that was a big moment, not only in the life of the King and the British Empire, but in the history of radio. DR. J. FRANCIS SMITH and L.T^ ~ in the studio here a Canadian and an Englishman whom X certainly daoulo, call upon Dor a remark or two on the King^ Jubilee Day, when all Englishmen want to make remarks. One of these is a distinguished Philadelphia Doctor. But he* s here because he*s the Commander of the British War Veterans in America, B.e was an officer in the Royal Canadian Regiment, and lost his eyesight in the King^ service. Commander Francis Smith, what is the peculiar influence ! : that makes a King with so few constitutional powers still such a dominant figure in the empire? j —o— Dr. WILSON:- To appreciate that, you should have seen him join the war as I did. He wasn't allowed to take the place he wanted to j in the firing lines. But whenever he appeared on the Front, much against the wishes of the Generals and the Cabinet, the mere sight of him was an inspiration worth a division of fresh troops. —o— ,V.-J „ .,S »=.,* DR. SMITH AMD L.T. - P ^* Over here we have the impression that King George is an austere roan, —o— DR« SMITH:- .Not that, He*s decidedly a simple, genial, and unpretentious man; ready Tor most amusements that men like. His idea of a happy evening is to avoid official functions and sit around the fireside v/ith Queen Mary. —o— L.T.:- That* s the type of man who today was the center of the most stately of all celebrations. But that*s something for Douglas Williams to tell us about.- Befs the distinguished correspondent of the great London Daily Telegraph, and he certainly should know what the Eoyal Jubilee was like. Let * s have him report on some of the sidelights of today in London. DOUGLAS /.ILL I AMS : Well, my dear Loweli Thomas, I havenTt had the pleasure of seeing you since our broadcast together from the Hauptmann trial. Today we have a much more pleasant subject. The wonderful pageant tnat took place in London tootesap as the British Empire celebrated King George’s £5th Anniversary. » Let me see, it’s been thirty-eight years since such a spectacle has been staged, hasn’t it? D.W.s Right you are - Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee. But today the multitude was even more tremendous. If the number of persons who fainted is any criterion of success,, then the Jubilee was a huge triumph. For more than seven thousand people, men, women and children , out of the huge crowd of three million that packed the sidewalks of my home town, received treatment for fainting or exhaustion at seventy First-flid stations specially erected to take care of them. The weather was perfect. A carnival spirit was in the air. DOUGLAS WILLIAMS - 2 And there's nothing finer than a perfect day in May in England. Are you telling me? The vast throngs that milled into London over the weekend waited-up patiently all night on the streets, sleeping on newspapers, cooking breakfasts over alcohol stoves, feeding babies from bottles. Men even brought their shaving kits with them^ one and all sternly determined to keep their little point of vantage. When eleven o'clock came and the State Procession with the King and Queen in their glittering glass coach rode by,*, the route from Buckingham Palace to St.Paul's Cathedral where the Thanksgiving service was held, was ^ust one solid mass of cheering, screaming, shouting humanity, all in a frenzy to show their loyalty to the House of Windsor. Twenty-six thousand soldiers and sailors lined the route but the police did not attempt to control the mob - they would anyway have been powerless against such vast numbers. But the crowd was good-natured and happy. They kept their own stations and at no ooint were there any rough doings reported. iJQUBLAS WILLIAMS - g A huge roar went up from the massed crowds as, leaving the palace punctually at ten forty-five. Their Majesties entered their famous glass coach drawn by six perfectly matched greys, and tne procession moved off towards St. Paulis* Accompanying the King and Queen were all the members of the Royal Family, in six carriages, including little Princess Elizabeth, daughter of the Duke of Kent, who may one day become Queen Elizabeth the Second* All around them pranced and cavorted the Cavalry escorts, the steel breastplates of the Lifeguards flashing in the bright sunshine* They rode to the accompaniment of one long roar of cheers, until they reached Old Temple Bar, the dividing line between the City of Westminster and the old City of London. There they were met by the Lord Mayor, arrayed in crimson xJa robes of office and surrounded by glittering officials* In accordance with one of the oldest English traditions, the King touched the Elisabethian Pearl- Handled Sword and received the Lord Mayor’s permission to enter the city. At the entrance to St* Paul’s Cathedral the Bishop of London and other church dignitaries welcomed the King‘a*/Queen, and, preceded by four Heralds of the Realm, escorted them to their special seats. DOUGLAS WILLIAMS - 4 And theOjwhile the millions of loyal subjects outside stood with bowed heads listening to the service brought to them by loud speakers, the King knelt in prayer of thanksgiving for the successful completion of his reign of a quarter of a century. If * 1 ? COTTON Once a year Memphis, the capital of King Cotton, let’s down her hair to do homage to the King. It’s carnival week on the banks of the Mississippi, the National Cotton Carnival, when all good Memphites do their dei’ndest to out-do New Orleans with her Mardi Gras. Parades, picnics and parties; balls, concerts and masquerades* IncideHuUtjrliy ^ "yo are-oil ■ glad—fco 1 oin^-ru that thoy found the twelve whi-be- hor&ea to accompany■' b-ady-GO’divQi-iiOtt her-rdde-through . nii Outside of Tennessee, the twelve million Americans whose livelihood depends on cotton, are celebrating National Cotton Week* But the pjtrfctnrie picture is not so joyful in New England. There, in normal times, a number of people make their living out of cotton another, while President Roosevelt’s Sub-Committee is working night and day trying to find out what can be done to stop that slump* And there’s worry on_this subject in Washington* Cotton HiS* there’s a tale of woe. Mills closing down one after A is not the least of the tough problems vexing the Administration. Though Memphis celebrates, other parts of the south as well as the north, are in difficulties. Government trade figures show that our COTTON - 2 cotfon exports dropped off last year by forty per cent, forty per cent lower even than the year before, which was none too <rood. The diagnosis is that tariff policy in the past and now the A.AJV have succeeded too well in raising the price of cotton. It got so high that brazil, India and Egypt planted bumper crops. So America has deadly competition in the foreign markets. It is a situation full of headaches all around. In the north manufacturers complain that the processing tax hurts their business. In the south, while Memphis is celebrating, there are anxious moments behind the scenes. herald A hundred years ago to^ay a new paper appeared on the streets of New York, selling for one penny. It was called the "New York Herald", and its founder, editor, and owner was James Gordon Bennett, one of the greatest journalistic geniuses of America. No, that’s not inclusive enough, -- of the world. j*or the New York Herald became famous wherever English is read, Here’s just one illustration. It was on an assignment from the New York Herald that Henry Morton Stanley made his famous trek through what was then knov/n as "darkest Africa", to find David Livingstone, and to become one of the world’s greatest explorers. Now its the New York Herald-Tribune! Long may it wav e, and - - SC LONG UNTIL TOMORROW